Hundreds of homes and businesses in West Bromwich and Oldbury were left without power today after the area was hit by a power cut.

Electricity went off at 494 properties across the two towns.

Fifty people were evacuated from Sandwell Council House in Oldbury when the power cut triggered fire alarms.

Other areas affected included Livingston Road and Bromford Lane in West Bromwich.

An underground network fault has been blamed by Central Networks for the power cut at 6.45am.

Power was restored to all but one of the properties by 8am.

Victoria Blake, of Central Networks said: “A total of 494 customers lost power at 6.45am.

“We believe an underground network fault was responsible for the problem.

“Power was restored to all but one property by 8am and the remaining customer had electricity by 8.30am.

“We now have a team of engineers investigating the problem.”